1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to arbitration techniques for digital systems, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for performing arbitration that increases the fairness of arbitrations, decreases system latency, increases system throughput, and is suitable for use in more to complex systems.
2. Background Information
Arbitration is commonly used in digital systems to allocate system resources, such as memory, buses and/or other resources, to more than one is agent requesting access thereto. Conventional arbitration may be based on a fixed or static priority scheme in which each agent has an assigned priority that is fixed at the time of manufacture and static (i.e., does not change). This type of arbitration, however, is less than optimal since it may essentially prevent certain low priority agents from accessing a given resource. As a result, system latency may increase and system throughput may decrease. Other types of conventional arbitration may not be suitable for handling more complex systems, such as those systems having a relatively large number of agents that share a particular resource.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for performing arbitration that addresses the foregoing problems, and thereby increases the fairness of arbitrations, decreases system latency, increases system throughput, and is suitable for use in more complex systems. The present invention addresses these and/or other issues.